Save America's Cities from Homeless Drug Addicts

Campaign Created by: Unsafe Streets LLC

The funds from this campaign will be received by .

Goal: USD $100,000
Raised: USD $ 580

America's cities are overrun with severely mentally ill and drug-addicted homeless men who are a danger to themselves, others, and to quality of life in their communities. The media refuses to cover this crisis accurately and politicians stand by and act helpless to fix the problem.

We are founding Unsafe Streets to shine a light on this scandal and pressure city and state leaders to do something about it.

The Problem

In many cities, homeless drug addicts have been allowed to dominate public spaces: sidewalks, parks, public transportation, and libraries. This trend makes these places unwelcoming and unsafe, especially for the elderly, women, and children. Some of these addicts are violent and target those who are the least able to fight back: they often victimize the elderly, women, and even children. Just a few examples are listed below.

In DC:

In New York City:

In San Francisco:

In Chicago:

  • 31-year-old woman was stabbed to death by a homeless man while she was out walking. The same man had recently attacked a 50-year-old woman and a 25-year-old woman. The first victim suffered a broken nose and required stitches on her head, and the second victim's head injuries were so severe that first responders thought she had been shot.

Unsafe Streets will raise awareness of this wave of violence and elevate the voices of victims and families who are willing to share their stories about the impact that homeless addicts have had on their communities.

The Solution

These addicts must be taken off the streets, forced to enter treatment, and be under regular supervision. Unsafe Streets will work to develop detailed policy solutions that build on the following common-sense measures.

  1. Get addicts off the streets and into supervised residential settings and keep them there: Immediately place the seriously mentally ill and drug addicted homeless into psychiatric hospitals, 24-hour homeless shelters, group homes, or prison, if appropriate or necessary.
  2. Strictly enforce the laws which homeless addicts are breaking with impunity: Focus on enforcing laws against public drug use, camping in parks and on sidewalks, public defecation and indecency, theft, and assault.
  3. Place the seriously mentally ill and drug-addicted homeless under long-term or permanent supervision: Qualified state officers should be deployed to provide ongoing supervision of these dangerous individuals, whether living in the community or in an institutional setting.

How will Unsafe Streets use the funds raised here?

Unsafe Streets is seeking start-up funding to hit the ground running and start making progress on this problem. These early funds are critical to launching with maximum impact. Goals for this round of funding are to:

  • Launch a high-caliber website and social media presence to raise awareness of the problem and build support for common-sense solutions.
  • Hire a small team to document the ongoing impact of homeless addicts on America’s cities and public spaces and begin creating resources for citizens to organize for local change.

  • Recruit a board of like-minded leaders and experts from a range of fields, including law enforcement, journalism, addiction treatment, and state and local government, to inform our efforts and multiply our impact.

Unsafe Streets’ longer-term goals include developing model policies and advocacy tools that citizens can use in their own communities and engaging independent investigative journalists to dig into the impacts of homeless addicts on individual cities and their public functions like parks, public transportation, fire and emergency services, and libraries.

Please join us in the fight to reclaim our public spaces and make our communities safe!

UPDATES

Update #3
January 17, 2023
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We have added a campaign page for Los Angeles, and have published a handout that concerned residents can share with city leaders explaining actions cities can take NOW to prevent homeless violence. Thank you for your support!

Update #2
May 12, 2022
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We have launched campaign pages for San Francisco and New York City! Next up is Los Angeles!

Website and Twitter profile are live!
February 8, 2022
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You can see our new website here: https://www.unsafestreets.org/

Follow us on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/UnsafeStreetsUS

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